Editing Pierre Louis Napoleon Cavagnari

{{Short description|19th-century Italian-British military officer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
[[Image:Pierre Louis Napoleon Cavagnari.png|thumb|right|Pierre Louis Napoleon Cavagnari]]'''Sir Pierre Louis Napoleon Cavagnari''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KCB|CSI}} (4 July 1841 – 3 September 1879) was an [[Italians|Italian]]-[[British Empire|British]] military administrator.

Cavagnari was the son of Count Louis Adolphus Cavagnari, of an old family from [[Parma]] in the service of the [[House of Bonaparte|Bonaparte]] family, by his marriage in 1837 with an [[Anglo-Irish]] woman, Caroline Lyons-Montgomery. Cavagnari was born at [[Stenay]], in the [[Meuse (department)|Meuse]] [[département]], [[France]], on 4 July 1841.<ref name=Dey>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/lifecareerofmajo00deykrich |title=The life and career of Major Sir Louis Cavagnari |publisher=Calcutta, J. N. Ghose & co. |author=Dey, Kally Prosono |year=1881 |accessdate=23 February 2016}}</ref><ref name=EB>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Cavagnari, Sir Pierre Louis Napoleon |volume= 05}}</ref> He was killed on 3 September 1879 during the [[Siege of the British Residency in Kabul|siege]] of the British [[Residence|Residency]] (then at [[Bala Hissar, Kabul|Bala Hissar]]) in [[Kabul]] in [[Afghanistan]].

He was educated at [[Christ's Hospital]] school, starting at the age of 10 years.<ref name=Dey/> He had obtained [[naturalization]] as a [[British people|British subject]], and entered the military service of the [[British East India Company|East India Company]]. After passing through college at the [[Addiscombe Military Seminary]], he served through the [[Awadh|Oudh]] campaign against the mutineers in 1858 and 1859. In 1861 he was appointed an assistant commissioner in the [[Punjab region]] of [[British India]], and in 1877 became deputy commissioner of [[Peshawar]] (now in [[Pakistan]]) and took part in several expeditions against the [[Pashtun tribes]].<ref name=Dey/><ref name=EB/>

[[Image:Pierre Louis Napoleon Cavagnari.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Cavagnari sitting with a group of Afghan tribesmen.]]
[[File:Mohammad Yaqub Khan with British officers in May of 1879.jpg|thumb|right|Mohammad Yaqub Khan with British officers in May 1879]]
[[File:Guides Memmorial.JPG|thumb|Queen's Own Corps of Guides Memorial, Cavagnari's Arch in [[Mardan]]|right]]

In September 1878 he was attached to the staff of a British mission to [[Kabul]], [[Afghanistan]], which the [[Demography of Afghanistan|Afghans]] refused to allow to proceed through the [[Khyber Pass]]. In May 1879, after the [[Second Anglo-Afghan War|British-Indian forces had invaded Afghanistan]], and the death of Afghan [[Emir]] [[Sher Ali Khan]], Cavagnari negotiated and signed the [[Treaty of Gandamak]] with Sher Ali Khan's son and successor, [[Mohammad Yaqub Khan]]. With this treaty, the Afghans agreed to admit a British representative to Kabul, and the post was conferred on Cavagnari, who also received the [[Order of the Star of India|Star of India]] and was made a [[Order of the Bath|KCB]]. He took up his residence in July 1879. On 3 September 1879, Cavagnari and the other European members of the mission, along with their guards who were made up of [[Corps of Guides (British India)|The Guides]], [[Siege of the British Residency in Kabul|were killed]] after he refused the demands of mutinous Afghan troops. Cavagnari was survived by his wife, Lady Cavagnari (''née'' Mercy Emma Graves), whom he had married in 1871.<ref name=Dey/><ref name=EB/>

==See also==
*[[European influence in Afghanistan]]
*[[Siege of the British Residency in Kabul]]
*[[The Great Game]]
*[[Sir Alexander Burnes]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Cavagnari, Sir Pierre Louis Napoleon}}

==External links==
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Pierre Louis Napoleon Cavagnari}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cavagnari, Pierre Louis Napoleon}}
[[Category:British East India Company Army officers]]
[[Category:1841 births]]
[[Category:1879 deaths]]
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath]]
[[Category:People educated at Christ's Hospital]]
[[Category:Alumni of Addiscombe Military Seminary]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the Indian Rebellion of 1857]]
[[Category:Companions of the Order of the Star of India]]
[[Category:Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:British people of the Second Anglo-Afghan War]]
[[Category:French emigrants to the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:People from Meuse (department)]]
[[Category:French people of Italian descent]]
[[Category:French people of Irish descent]]
[[Category:British people of Italian descent]]
[[Category:British people of Irish descent]]